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Look, It's Really Hard to Land a Rocket on a Boat, OK?

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched on April 14, 2015, carrying its sixth resupply payload for the International Space Station.

NASA

It's not easy to land a rocket on a drone boat in the middle of the ocean. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, knows this. After all, in January one of his Falcon 9 boosters failed spectacularly to plop down onto a specially designed, autonomously controlled barge tethered in the Atlantic. But that didn't stop Musk from giving it a second try today.

Surprise! It didn't work. Curse you, Team Barge! But today's failure is still another step toward the ultimate goal of landing, and then reusing, rockets for SpaceX's space delivery service.

As has become his habit, Musk tweeted about today's launch. After the Falcon 9 successfully uncoupled from the Dragon capsule it sent toward the International Space Station, full of a supplies, he wrote: "Ascent successful. Dragon enroute to Space Station."